My passenger carrying day started at Bournemouth Uni. with an 06:30 departure for Winchester where another driver takes over for the remainder of the trip to London. I left the Uni. dead on 06:30 and then went to Bournemouth Triangle and picked up a couple more passengers, left dead on 06:40 as per the timetable. Then it’s out of Bournemouth, next stop Ringwood, via the Wessex Way which is a 50mph urban dual carriageway with no stopping. Just got onto this and a taxi drew level with me tooting its horn, pieces of paper were being waved out of a window. Of course I couldn’t read the print at 50 mph in the dark but I think they were trying to let me know they had a Megabus ticket! I made a gesture with my arm to try and signal ‘no way’. Then the taxi pulled in front and put its hazard lights on trying to block the dual carriageway, can you believe it? I simply went round it and carried on. They got the message then and followed me to Ringwood where they got on at a regular stop – a £30 taxi fare the poorer.

It doesn’t give me a laugh to do this, it’s not fun. Why do peole think they should be able to stop the bus after it’s left the stop? 99% of the time they are at a point where you couldn’t stop even if you wanted to, traffic lights, roundabouts, a dual carriageway like today etc. If you were to stop you need somewhere safe because you have get off the bus, open the hold and stow their luggage before getting back on and then checking tickets. It’s unfair to all the other passengers who arrived on time and now would have unneccessay minutes added to their journey time.